San Andrés, Colombia

In November of 2023, Sonny and I took a trip to San Andrés, Colombia. To be fully transparent we had never heard of San Andrés or Providencia before booking this trip.

Known as the sea of seven colors San Andrés and Providencia are home to the third largest coral reef in the world. This stunning tropical paradise is off the coast of Nicaragua but is owned by Colombia.

How did I stumble upon these two amazing tropical islands? To be honest, I was looking for a trip to the Caribbean, but I wanted to find someplace where the accommodations are cheap. To do this I pulled up Airbnb and started zooming in on different islands. When this island popped up accommodations started at $38 USD and up.

At this point, I booked our tickets through United Airlines using our miles to pay for the airfare. Once the airfare was booked I then turned my focus to figuring out where we were going to stay.

Typically when I book a trip I go back and forth between Airbnb, VRBO, and Booking.com. I feel VRBO tends to have more expensive listings. Booking.com has a lot of features I like, such as making partial payments, and paying when you arrive, and to me, it seems like there are fewer fees for the renter. In the end for this trip, I ended up using Booking.com.

Originally, I booked a property that was about 400 feet from Playa Spratt Bight, but after more research, I knew this was not the spot for us. When we travel we are often looking to relax. I know boring, but hey we work a lot!

Eventually, I stumbled upon the small town of San Luis. San Luis is tucked away from the bustling crowds and has a laid-back chill vibe. I found a little apartment on Booking.com called Apartamentos Sound Bay Beach it cost around $60 USD a night. The apartment was very basic the kitchen had just enough for us to be able to cook and store our beer. That said the apartment was directly across the street from the beach. My favorite feature was the balcony where we would sit and listen to the ocean, birds, and reggae.

We stayed in Sound Bay Beach for four days. Our days consisted of playing in the ocean, laying out on the beach, and reading. We did go to the beach club one day and enjoyed some piña coladas and a lounger.

For food, San Luis is not in a bustling section of town so your only options are small mini-markets (there is a large grocery store in the main town where the airport is). Our flight landed in the late evening so we went directly to our accommodations and were hungry. Once we talked with our host we knew we would discover there were no restaurants in the evening only during the lunch hours. This was not a big deal because two small markets were within walking distance from our condo.

During our stay, we pretty much lived off coconut, beans, and rice. Often when Sonny and I travel we do very simple meals. The reason is often we find ourselves in smaller towns away from the hustle and bustle of the city and are often limited to mini markets (I know we could get a taxi and go to town, but we don’t mind living simply).

The locals in San Andrés were warm and welcoming. Since this is an island of Colombia most of the people speak Spanish, but the local Raizal community speaks an English-Creole. In the morning we would take walks along the beach or the street. Locals would stop us and ask us where we were from and tell us to enjoy every minute we were there on their beautiful island.

Two days before we were scheduled to leave we decided to rent a buggy to explore the island. While there are cars on the island most people travel by motorbike or buggy (really most tourists travel in a buggy). The buggy rental cost us around $60 USD for 24 hours. The day we decided to rent the buggy ended up being the sunniest day during our stay on the island.

San Andrés is 13 kilometers in length making it easy to see the island in one day. Once we got the buggy Sonny had to navigate his way through town, which is jam-packed and on top of all the traffic driving in another country is always a bit intimidating.

Once we made it out of the city we started our journey around the island. As you are driving along you see houses painted in bright bold colors surrounded by lush green vegetation. Beautiful beaches with multiple shades of tropical ocean blue.

One of my favorite spots (we did not swim, we sat and drank beers) was on the south tip of the island right before El Hoyo Soplador. It was such a peaceful spot where palm trees lined the beach (not a lot of sand). As we sat on the bench this was the first place I saw a vivid blue rainbow lizard. Seeing this lizard was seriously one of the flora and fauna I wanted to see (who knew I would see so many in Providencia).

As we traveled around the island we would stop at different scenic spots and I would assist Sonny with the recording of his rap video Going, Going, Gone. We film this video on every trip we go on.

The day we had the buggy it was so warm and sunny we decided to do a touristy thing and we went to West View to jump off the diving board. The fee to get in is 8,000 COP which is about $2 USD. We needed a reprieve from the heat so this was a no-brainer for us. It was busy when we were there, but there were still plenty of bleachers and the line to jump off the diving board was minimal.

Overall we enjoyed West View. Both Sonny and I love jumping off rocks into the water. Being able to jump off an old school, super springy. diving board into the ocean that is 6 meters deep was calling our names. Once you are in the water there are tons of fish and the water is an amazing color of blue. There are metal ladders along the cliffside to help you get out.

After about 45 min. we decided to pack up and keep driving around the island. As we drove around we just kind of stopped wherever looked interesting and had a spot to pull out.

One of my favorite spots to drive along was the Cove Sea Side. It’s a little inlet from the ocean and houses line each side and boats line the shoreline. It is one spot I did not take any pictures of and I do regret it.

After driving around and exploring the island around dusk it started to rain (which makes it difficult to drive a buggy that has no windshield). At this point, we decided to call it a day and head back to our spot.

On the last day we were there we went into town to return our buggy, as we were walking we saw a small empañada shop and we stopped in and grabbed a couple. Neither of us was all that hungry at that time so I ordered a cheese one and Sonny ordered a two chicken. All I have to say is that I regret that I only bought one! The crust on the empañada was light and flaky with a mild sweetness contrasted with the saltness of the cheese. Oh my goodness I am salivating just writing about it. Sonny’s was savory and full of flavor.

After catching a taxi back to our spot Sonny and I talked about our flight the next morning. In the morning we were scheduled for the first flight at 7 am to Providencia. Our spot in San Luis was not in a densely populated tourist area and we realized that we were going to need to stay in the city by the airport.

At the last minute, I booked us a 1-night room at the Dreamer Beach Club in town. The hotel/hostel was within walking distance of the airport so we booked it. Upon arrival the staff was wonderful. While inquiring about our plans I mentioned that we had a flight to Providencia in the morning and that we planned to walk to the airport. The woman welcoming us advised us that it was unsafe to walk to the airport that early in the morning in the dark and recommended we use a taxi. This was a huge contrast from where we were just at, but hey it’s a city and we were thankful for the warning.

The accommodation was nice and clean. The room was small but we were only there for one night. That night we enjoyed dinner from the restaurant on sight. I had a chicken salad with patacones on the side and Sonny had a Colombian rice dish topped with an egg. Both of our dinners were delicious (especially after 3 days of coconut rice and beans for every meal).

After dinner, we stayed at our table and had a couple of cocktails. Sonny drew in his blackbook while I read. It was peaceful and a fun place to people-watch. After a couple of drinks, we decided to call it a night.

We woke up the next morning at 4:30 am. We needed to be at the airport two hours before our flight. The check-out process at the hostel was very easy and again the staff said that this was not a safe hour to walk to the airport so they called us a taxi. The taxi arrived and in less than a minute we were at the airport headed to the next island.

Providencia…. (To be continued)

Going, Going, Gone by Sonny Wong

A couple of trips ago, my husband wanted to film a rap video of one of his songs called “Going, Going Gone”. After he compiled the video we decided that from now on we will record a new video of our adventures to the tune of this song.

Check back to this blog post to see updates on our travel adventures!

South Kelsey Trail to 8 Mile Creek

Our camp on the river bar at 8 mile creek

Over the Memorial Day weekend we decided to take our annual backpacking trip. This past winter there was record amounts of snow which made some of our annual spots inaccessible. We decided to look for trails that are at lower elevations. Our original plan was to do the Rogue River Trail, but the day before we were about to leave Sonny’s friend recommended a spot in the Siskiyou Wilderness. South Kelsey Trail to Gunbarrel Camp.

There were a couple of reasons we decided to do this trail instead of our original plan. The first reason is we really enjoy backpacking in less crowded regions, while this is a popular trail it is not nearly as popular as the Rogue River trail. The second reason is we recently stayed at an Airbnb outside of Gasquet near the Smith River, it is truly a beautiful area. While we were at our Airbnb we did some small hikes and discussed how we both wanted to explore this area a little more. The last reason was, it was a shorter drive. I know it sounds silly, but hey sometimes its nice to only have to drive 2.5 hrs vs 4.5.

After a nice peaceful drive up the coast and along a winding road beside the South Fork of the Smith River, we arrived at the trailhead around noon. There were a handful of cars in the parking area as well as a couple of people getting ready to hit the trail.

Looking down from the trail to the river below

After gearing up we hit the trail. The first part of the trail you are pretty much traversing from the top of the mountain to the bottom where the river is. Once you get to the base you are pretty much on a pretty flat trail through the woods.

The first notable spot along the way is Buck Creek Shelter. The Shelter is made of wood and has three sides to the covered building. On the open side of the building is an old forest service style camp stove. From the shelter you can walk down to the river and I have read that there are some nice places to swim.

Zoë & Sonny on the trail

About two miles after Buck Creek you will come upon the Summit Valley trailhead. From what I understand this trail is pretty steep from what I hear, but I am sure the summit has some spectacular views.

Next to the Summit Valley trail is Elkhorn camp. We stopped here for a quick break and to check out the area, but we didn’t stay long due to the large amount of mosquitos. Elkhorn had a decent sized camp spot, that sat a little ways above the river.

From here the trail remains relatively flat with a couple spots with a decent incline. Our original goal was to get to Gunbarrel camp, but when we arrived at 8 mile creek we would have to ford across the river. This was technically doable with the water coming up to about waist high, but with the water being as cold and swift as it was we decided that we would rather just camp at 8 Mile camp.

At 8 Mile camp there are 4 camp sites. One on the river bank and the other three on a narrow and shaded flat above the river. Since it was Memorial Day weekend we definitely were sharing the space with other backpackers (no biggie).

Sonny reading by the river

We really enjoyed our time at 8 mile camp. It was beautiful watching 8 mile creek converge with the South Fork of the Smith. The water was an amazing turquoise blue color with amazing visibility. I would imagine that this would be a great spot to swim in the summer.

Either way, we all agreed that we would definitely like to do this trail again, with the goal of making it up to Gunbarrel camp next time.

A quick selfie on Buck Creek Bridge

At the trailhead ready to drop down into the river valley

The Blue Lagoon- Nacula Island, Fiji

Nucula Island, Fiji

Back in early April I was dreaming of a trip to the Philippines and was checking out prices for flights and lodging. While doing this I saw a little banner at the top of the page mentioning that Fiji had recently reopened to travelers. Fiji Airlines was running a temporary discounted airfare for a direct flight from San Fransisco to Viti Levu. Being one that loves a good bargain I decided to look into it more. Upon looking at the deal, I decided to divert from my original plan and decided to book a two-week holiday for my husband and myself.

After I booked the tickets, it was now time to decide where we were going to go. I looked at going to Taveuni Island, the Lau group of islands (which I wanted to visit but they are very remote), Kadavul Island, the Yasawa’s, and Vanua Levu. As you can imagine this process was overwhelming. I normally do not have any problem picking a vacation destination and finding a place, but Fiji turned out to be rather difficult for me. I don’t have any friends or family that have been there so I couldn’t ask anyone for a recommendation. This may sound completely ridiculous but I seriously was worried about not choosing an epic spot.

Sonny and I work a lot, so we knew that we wanted to pretty much chill for our vacation. Our goals were laying out on the beach, swimming, snorkeling, reading on the beach, and watching sunsets repeat.

After doing extensive research, in the end, we decided we were going to go to the Yasawa’s.

Yasawa’s- Nacula Island

The Yasawa’s are a group of Island’s off the west coast of Viti Levu. The islands are known for their white sand beaches. Multiple islands make up the Yasawa’s. After looking at things like price point and things to do we decided to go to Nacula Island to the Blue Lagoon Resort.

Nacula Island is the second to last island in the Yasawa Group. While researching where to go, I knew that if we stayed here we would have to take either a boat ride or a seaplane. In the end, we decided to go by boat on the Yasawa Flyer to the island. The boat was more economical and on top of that I knew that choosing this method of transportation would allow us to see all of the other islands on the way to our destination. I also knew, that choosing this method meant we were going to be on the Yasawa Flyer for five hours. I know that may sound grueling, but if I had to do it over again I would hands down choose to go by boat again and again.

Nacula Island is a small island that has no roads. There are four villages on the island. As you can imagine this makes the island feel remote and amazingly peaceful. This is exactly what we were looking for in this vacation.

Things To Do While on Nacula Island

• Snorkeling- Right in front of the Blue Lagoon Resort is a reef that goes out pretty far. Every day (sometimes multiple times a day), we would check out snorkeling gear and cruise along the reef. There were so many beautiful fish it was easy to spend 2 hours swimming around and looking at everything. The resort also offered snorkeling excursions (which cost money but were reasonably priced. We did two snorkeling excursions the first was in between two islands that were to the south of our island and then we did a night snorkel.

• SUP/Kayak- The resort offers Stand Up Paddleboards and Kayaks. I believe these are free for guests but we never did it. We talked about it but always ended up going snorkeling instead.

• Hiking- There is a hiking trail right behind the resort. The trail takes you up to the top of the mountain ridge line where you can get 360-degree views of the island. We did this on an overcast morning and started around 7:00 am. We live in Northern California where a warm day here is about 75 degrees. I am pretty sure this hike would have been hard for us if we chose to do it during the day.

• Scuba Diving- The resort offers many different scuba diving trips. Neither of us has any sort of scuba diving certification. You could take classes at the resort, but we didn’t want to spend our vacation taking classes. Though, now that we are home, I would like to get certified here so that next time we are on a trip I can go scuba diving if I want to. Had I been certified I am positive I would have gone on a dive.

• The Beach- The beach in front of the resort was absolutely stunning! We spent so much time laying out, reading, soaking in the water, and just listening to the gentle roll of the water.

• Sawa-I-Lau Caves- This was my favorite excursion that we did. The cost to go to the cave was very reasonably priced and was worth every single cent. Once you go into the cave there is ocean water for you to swim around in. The top of the cave is open so natural sunlight filters into the cave from above. After spending some time in the first cave you then have to swim underwater through a large hole to get into the second cave. The second cave is pitch black except for the flashlight that the captain had.

• Watching the Sunset- All I can say is wow! The sunsets here were so unique. We tried to enjoy the sunsets every night. We would order ourselves a couple of Fiji Bitters and sit in the sand to watch the setting sun. It never got old!

Uaymitún, Mexico

Our AirBnB in Uaymitún shortly after sunrise

Well if you know anything about us, then you probably already know that we love adventures. Both Sonny and I work a lot, and our motto is if we are going to work this hard we need to reward ourselves with some relaxation and family time. Oftentimes the places we like to escape to are tropical destinations, but we also enjoy the mountains.

Since our kids get a week off for Thanksgiving we decided this would be the perfect opportunity to take a quick little family vacation. We already knew that we wanted to go somewhere tropical and we wanted to get another stamp in our passports! That said taking three out of four of our kids plus ourselves is a bit pricy. In the end, we felt that travel time and price point Mexico was the place for us.

Mexico holds a special place in our hearts. Sonny traveled to Puerto Vallarta every year as a kid with his folks, while my grandparents had a spot near Ensenada in Baja that we would visit when I was young. On top of our early childhood experiences, back in 2016, Sonny proposed to me on top of the pyramid in Coba. On top of the many memories we hold in our hearts, we both love the rich flavors, bold colors, beaches, ceñotes, culture, and history that Mexico offers.

Sonny and I reading and drinking margaritas in the pool

One thing I strive to do when traveling, is to visit as many new places as possible. Sonny and I have already traveled pretty much all of the south side of the Yucatán Peninsula along the coast, so we knew we didn’t want to stay in that area on this trip. That said, we both have a love of the Yucatán Peninsula and seeing that the temperatures in Humboldt County are steadily dropping we knew we wanted to go some place warm.

Knowing that we had not stayed on the North side of the Yucatán this is where I started. I knew of Mérida, but I do not know anybody that has personally been there. Mérida is the capital of the Yucatán and has an international airport. Boom I am sold.

Next part, before I book any tickets, I need to figure out where we are going to stay. Both Sonny and I knew we wanted a beach front property. Since we were bring our three teenage daughters we thought it would be smart to have a pool. Other than that we didn’t have any other parameters.

At this point I logged into my AirBnB account and began the search. I moved the map to the coastline and then began looking at accommodations that were big enough for our family and met what we were looking for. I started off looking in Progresso, it did not take me long to establish that I did not want to stay in this town, but knew it would be nice to be fairly close. The reason I didn’t choose Progresso is because it’s a port town. The big cruise ships dock there which means lots of people. Covid is a thing right now and I after visiting Progresso it was not as full as I imagine it was pre-Covid.

After that my search led me to the west of Progress on the map in Celestún. This area is a biosphere reserve and looked absolutely amazing. The problem with this region it looked to be substantially less populated (which would be ideal for Sonny and I, but trying to keep three teenagers engaged you definitely need some sort of nightlife).

My focus now shifted to the East of Progresso. This is when I found a nice AirBnB about 20 min. outside of Progresso. Uaymitún, did not have a town, but instead was pretty much a strip along the peninsula lined with beach houses. There were other spots further to the East that I looked at in San Benito, Telchac Puerto & San Crisanto. In the end based on our arrival in Mexico we opted to stay in Uaymitún. After driving further to the East there was a town that was super cute filled with coconut palms and had a small town that I think would have been amazing to stay in. It was more isolated though and would have added an additional 40 min drive time onto some of our bigger adventures.

Sonny doing what he does best!

Uaymitún ended up being the ideal location for this vacation. Having the ability to make a quick 20 min. trek into Progresso was ideal. There were two big supermarkets right off the highway so that we had the ability to stock up on food and water for our house. Also, being this close to town we were able to take the girls to town for dinner, lunch or just to walk around (which we did a couple of times). This also allowed us to stay in a spot not surrounded by other people. To the right of our house was an empty lot and to the left there were a handful of vacant beach houses.

Using this as our base we were able to go explore ruins one really close by and one that was about 1 hour and 40 min away. We were close enough to drive to some ceñotes in Cuzamá and Homún. We also ventured into Mérida a couple of times to walk around and have dinner. I will be sharing our pyramid adventures and ceñote adventures soon.

El Placer, Mexico

The view from our back door of our AirBnB

Finding Our Vacation Destination

Back in December of 2020, we decided to travel to Mexico. Due to COVID, we weren’t able to travel much that year and by December we were getting a little stir crazy. I booked the trip on a whim so I didn’t have much time to plan things out. I had 5 days to find lodging and come up with things for us to do. Since it was peak COVID time, I knew the majority of our time would be spent at whatever house we booked. That meant I needed a house or studio that was right on the beach and preferably a bit remote.

One thing I try to do when I travel is to go to new places and see different things. On our previous trip to the Yucatan, we stayed in Playa Del Carmen and traveled extensively throughout that region. My husband and I love the Yucatan with the beautiful Caribbean beaches. We decided that we wanted to go to the Yucatan region, but we wanted to go someplace new. On our prior trip, I wanted to visit Laguna Bacalar, but with so many ruins and ceñotes to visit, we never made it down that far. With that in mind, I then got on my AirBnb app. One thing I like to do on the AirBnB app is find a general location and just start looking up and down within that region to find a spot.

Once I logged into the AirBB app, I started scrolling just south of Tulum on the beach and started zooming in and looking for places to populate with a price. That’s when I found an amazing spot in a village called El Placer. To call El Placer a village seems silly, it’s a strip of land with houses and vacant lots. El Placer is about 20 minutes north of Mahahual and about 5 hours south of the Cancún airport. Since El Placer is pretty remote we knew that we would need to stock up on groceries. We also knew there were some smaller markets and fruit stands in Mahahual.

About Our Lodging

Our AirBnB was a downstairs studio with a private entrance. The studio was simple, it had a bathroom and shower and a small kitchenette where we could prepare our daily meals. The window inside the studio looked out at this beautiful beach. There was an outdoor shower that you could use to rinse off after spending the day in the water. The caretaker of the property resides in the upstairs unit and there is an additional studio on the other side of the house. When we were there, we were the only visitors besides the caretaker. All of the properties around us were vacant at the time of our visit. The cost to rent this AirBnB was $69 USD a night! The one downfall of this location was the trash on the beach. I am not sure if it was the time of year or maybe it is the way that the tide comes in, either way, there was trash on the beach. That said the trash wasn’t enough to detour us from swimming and hanging out on the beach. Even with the trash the beach was beautiful. White sands and turquoise blue water what’s not to love? Would I visit this location again? Absolutely!

Laguna Bacalar

Things To Do

We stayed in El Placer for about two weeks, at a certain point we wanted to venture out. Here are some of the things we did:

Costa Maya- Is a small village located just outside of Mahahual. Costa Maya is where we would go to pick up groceries, visit the fruit market and pick up any random supplies we needed. The town is pretty small but it does have a couple of hotels.

Mahahual- Is a small village that I imagine gets pretty busy when the cruise ships are docking there. Luckily while we were here the cruise ships were not running due to covid so the village didn’t seem overly crowded to me. We would visit Mahahual when we felt like eating out or getting a cocktail next to the beach. I am vegetarian and was pleasantly surprised to find enough options for me to eat. Mahahual is also a great place to stroll along the malecón.

Laguna Bacalar (Lake Bacalar)- Prior to our trip, Laguna Bacalar has been a destination that I have wanted to visit for years. Lake Bacalar was just under two hours away. This lake of seven colors did not disappoint. On the lake there are several open ceñotes that you can swim in on your tour. One thing that we didn’t do that we regretted was going to Fuerte San Felipe. It is a fort that was used to protect the citizens from the pirates. While we were visiting we were told that the lake was not as vibrant as it normally is due to a recent hurricane.

Chetumal- I wanted to visit this town while we were down there, but we never made it. Supposedly you can see manatees swimming in the water. It is also a larger town that has bigger markets like Costco. If I were to do this trip again I would have taken an additional plane ride to the airport in Chetumal to avoid driving five hours from Cancún. Chetumal boarders Belize and is about 2.5 hours from El Placer.